Henrik Ibsen

Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.

The stage is the place for the artist who wants to speak to the soul of his people.

One of these days, the people are going to demand ennoblement for all.

The life of the imagination is the only real life.

A man should never wear his best trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom and truth.

The strongest of all warriors are these two - Time and Patience.

All my life I have been haunted by an elusive longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.

The theatre is a battlefield; only the truth comes out smeared in blood.

Smoking is the only accomplishment which the lower classes have in common with the upper.

I am half inclined to think that the moon is inhabited.

The mask of marriage - it is a wonderful thing.

To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Literature is not an escape from life, but a means of understanding it.

The devil has power to assume a pleasing shape.

A real artist, he said, must have an iron will and a granite perseverance.

Freedom is the breath of life to the human soul.

The only rational way of educating is to be an example.

I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.